by Charles Dean
“I really want to help ya, but man”--Liu shook her head--“that map is horrible. I don’t think I can identify anything from it. Are those buildings, or do you just really like the swiss flag?”
Lucas frowned. “Just bear with it,” he said with a sigh, continuing his attempt at drawing. “Look, this is where we met the creepy old guy and his worthless student in the middle of town, and this is where the academy is. Using these two points for directions, this is the spot you need to reach as quickly as you can. Try to bring Nick and Katie along if you can find them, but if you can’t, just leave them a note at our little tuft of land.”
“Okay. I think I can make it to that spot, but are you going to stop being evasive and tell me what’s going on?” Liu asked, looking a little concerned.
“Someone took Viola and Bonnie,” Lucas said. “I’m going to try and rescue them, but while I’m doing it, there are going to be a ton of people trying to kill me.”
“Of course, you’re the villain. People wanting to murder you is kind of your thing. Why are you saying it like it’s a surprise?” Liu laughed. “I mean, even in real life, people wanted to kill you.”
“What? We don’t have time for jokes,” Lucas answered. He was a little taken aback, but he was unable to resist adding, “I thought I was a likable guy. Everyone at the company liked me.”
Liu laughed. “And here I thought you said you had no time for jokes.”
Lucas frowned. I was liked, right? I thought I was charismatic . . . Whatever, Lucas grumbled to himself, not sure if she was joking at his expense or if he just didn’t realize how many people didn’t like him. Both were possibilities. Liu did like her jokes, and his wealth did turn people into sycophants. “Look, just meet at this location and help keep me from dying. I’m activating a quest that will have me working for the Blood Goddess, which apparently turns me into a vampire and requires me to kill a bunch of people. So, during the transformation process, everyone who wasn’t already trying to kill me is going to come after me too. I’ll need your help now more than ever.”
“I don’t think there is a time you haven’t needed my help,” Liu chuckled as she stood up, unbuttoning and beginning to take off her shirt as she headed toward the room with her dive capsule. “But don’t worry. I’ll be there for you as quickly as I can. Just like always. Go ahead and log in. I’ll go fetch that goofball Nick and your Naga sharpshooter.”
“Thanks . . .” Lucas said. He hesitated, and something stopped him from adding the word “sis,” even though he wasn’t sure why. She’s joking about it, but she’s right. The others . . . I don’t know when they’ll come or go, when a better opportunity will show up or when it’ll be too inconvenient to help me, and they’ll disappear. But with her . . . His mind drifted to the hundreds of times where she had helped him without a second thought. Even back when Yu Hua had been on his mind all the time, she had always been his pillar. She listened to him blabber on and on about how great Yu Hua was and even helped him plan their engagement and make sure that their honeymoon was perfectly planned. Liu had always been there for him. Why did I ever try to push her away? A pang of guilt pierced through him.
No, I don’t have time for this. I have to get going. Lucas let the towel drop away as he climbed back into the dive device and logged back into the game world.
-----
“Welcome back,” Lilith said from the corner of the room as soon as Lucas logged in. “Wasn’t sure how long you’d be gone. Was worried the fun might have started before you got back.”
Lucas turned to see that she had taken over the cobbler’s corner and was using the two dead men’s bodies as footrests while idly playing with her knife. “Did anyone show up while I was gone?” he asked.
“Well, Linnaeus barreled in to make sure that you were okay, but then he pretended like he knew you were fine all along and went back to lead the others here. Past that? Nope. It’s been rather quiet. I was actually thinking about putting a spike trap on the door and rolling the dice as to whether it would be an ally or enemy who went through it first. Wouldn’t that be a fun game?” Lilith giggled. “It’d be like, ‘Hey, Dave! Nice to-- Splat!”
“Who is Dave?” Lucas asked curiously. She seems a little too enthusiastic about killing, but . . . Lucas shook his head, expelling the unnecessary consideration. This is a bloody world we’re in, one where people are constantly being killed in the streets and murdered for seemingly no reason. After spending enough time here, anyone would become blasé about it.
“Dave’s just the name of a guy who should be careful about walking through doors,” Lilith said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Never know when you’ll lose a Dave to a door trap. Anyway, wanna do it? I can help you make one. I have lots of fun tools to make traps in my backpack.”
“That’s . . . definitely going to be needed, but is there a way to turn them off until we get our guys on this side of the doorway?” Lucas asked. He was all for rigging the entire area, but it seemed like a frivolous task as long as he still had lots of people outside of it.
“Yeah. Easy. I’ll just wait to connect the tripwire.” With that, Lilith went to work stringing together a set of explosives next to one of the doors. When she was done, she tied on a thin string that Lucas could only assume was attached to the detonator.
“Alright, that works,” Lucas said approvingly once she had finished. Nevertheless, even with the knowledge that the trigger wasn’t connected, he still tensed up when the door opened. Visions of the bomb going off and guts and organs splattering everywhere flashed through his mind’s eye, and some small part of his brain was a little disturbed at how vividly he was able to picture the event.
“Sorry we’re late boss,” Kent said as he walked through the door. He was one of Lucas’s finest guards, almost capable of killing a regular Level 30 player on his own thanks to the fact Lucas had given him three rounds of training. Lucas had also decked him out in the best gear he could get with the material and smithing restrictions of his previous dungeon. “We ran here as fast as we could, but there were people in the way that kept blocking our path. This town is much more crowded than any of those back on the island.”
“Did you kill them?” Lucas asked. He genuinely hoped that the answer was “yes” since it was very likely that anyone purposefully blocking his guards’ path was also someone who was going to reappear as an enemy very soon.
“No, you taught us to respect the citizens of a town,” Steven answered as he walked in behind Kent. “We only kill outsiders, criminals, petty thieves, migrants lacking papers, and people trying to sneak into your home. Those were your explicit orders.”
“Hmm . . . You all did good getting here, but next time someone is impeding your ability to complete my orders, maybe consider using a little more force. Or . . . No, stick with the original orders.” Lucas was still learning the ins and outs of the command system, and he could only imagine his guards following his word to the letter and killing random kids in the street. Enough people hate me already without my bannermen and soldiers taking out extra innocents, he thought, shaking his head.
“Anyway, where is Linnaeus? How long does it take to make sure people are here?” Lucas wondered out loud, looking at the soldiers coming through. “And where is Eri, my little dragon?”
“That . . . That thing? Yes. It’s in the back. It . . . We . . . umm . . .” Steven stammered, scratching his head for a moment before quickly stiffening up like a soldier who just saw a general on base. “She is outside, eating a cart of fruit we were forced to buy for it . . . err . . . her . . .”
Lucas nodded. “Okay. I need that little monster to get to work, so drag the cart in here. And tell Linnaeus I need to see him too. We’ve got a fight to win and people to rescue. As for you guys, I need half of you to come with me, and the other half will finish setting up traps and barriers wherever you can. Consider this”--Lucas gestured to the building around him--“your new base of operation. But don’t hesitate to retreat if needed. I need yo
u alive more than I need this place intact.”
“I’m going with you,” Lilith called over from where she was wiring a second new tripwire-detonated explosive trap. “Just so you know.”
“You mean to rescue the girls?”
“No, I just mean I’m going with you,” Lilith corrected plainly. “I came to watch you work your magic, and I plan on having a front-row seat. I’ll be your support, not your tool.”
The way she said it told Lucas that she wasn’t likely to obey any order he gave her unless she wanted to. That’s fine. He didn’t trust her to do as she was told anyway. After all, she was just someone that he had met less than an hour ago at most--someone he didn’t even fully understand. With Bonnie, he knew that as long as the payments were the best around, she’d do what he said to the letter. With Nick, he knew that while Nick wanted a few coins here and there, he’d just follow the group. So long as the assignment put Nick with someone to talk to, he’d be reliable. He understood how to use everyone--and their motivations--but not Lilith.
“Well, bring one of those tripwires and some explosives,” Lucas instructed. “I’m going to make this fun.” He had already put together an idea of how to fight this group in his head. He had less than two dozen soldiers from a beginner dungeon, an un-evolved monster, and a wildly unpredictable, kill-hungry woman whom he was positive was a player despite the fact she was clearly part of the Imperium. Linnaeus himself would be worth a few players on Hesse, but whether or not he would be worth many here, where the players had better Hit Point pools, armor, weapons, and spells, was hard to say. Lucas had no way to predict how deadly things might get. Players here were far more experienced and more likely to be combat ready, especially if they were coming after him specifically looking for a fight. This wasn’t going to be nearly as easy as it has been back on Hesse, and if he was going to win, Lucas knew that he was going to have to use a little subterfuge and pull something out of his hat.
“As for Linnaeus and Eri . . .” Lucas explained the rest of the orders to his crew, making sure that everything was going to go as well as it could, before heading upstairs. He was pleased to discover that the camped enemy group was acting just like players usually did: they had clumped up in one room. He was tempted to try and blow the floor out from underneath them and then strike before they could collect themselves, but the room that they had picked--the largest in the entire establishment--was also what corresponded to a dungeon’s master room. Thus, it had protective walls so that it couldn’t simply be exploded from the bottom. Just like his throne room back on Hesse, it had protections against any tampering that would allow the player to win without directly facing the boss. Not to mention, even if Lucas went that route, he’d likely just end up killing Viola and Bonnie in the process. There wasn’t a quest penalty for them dying at this point, but that didn’t mean he wanted to risk losing a couple teammates right before the horde battle.
I’ve got a little less than four minutes. Lucas stared at the door intently for a moment and took several deep breaths as he readied himself and prepared to open it. The moment he made a move, he’d come face to face with the group of players holding his people hostage and hoping to murder him, and that was a little unsettling. For all he knew, even the door might end up killing him if he wasn’t careful.
“You’re not nervous, are you?” Lilith asked. She had propped up against the right side of the door with her back against the wall while waiting for him to give the signal. There were four additional soldiers on either side of the door, spaced out with about a foot or so between them.
“No.” Lucas shook his head. I can’t show weakness. Not in front of my men, not in front of her, he decided, before smiling at her and saying, “I’m excited. I can’t wait to see who is about to die.”
“‘How many?’ is the question I have. I can’t hear more than a few people walking around in there. Can they hear us?” Lilith said, lowering her voice and tilting her head. “I wonder . . . If we can hear them, they can hear us, right?”
“Maybe.” Lucas shrugged as he placed a hand on the door handle and then turned it.
The door slowly opened, and Lucas counted eight people in front of him. There were six enemies plus Viola and Bonnie. The two girls were seated on the floor with two creepy-looking mages flanking their sides. Then there was another guy dressed in leather who was scowling at everyone. Next was Jake, the ninja-wannabe whose girlfriend he had accidentally stolen, angrily pacing back and forth. Lastly, there was a pair of men, one who looked like a mage and another who looked like an archer, leaning against the wall to the right of Lucas. When their eyes landed on him, they hefted their weapons slightly as if getting ready to attack.
“YOU!” the slowly man bellowed. His eyes darted to Viola before immediately returning to Lucas. “YOU! This is your fault!”
“My fault?” Lucas faltered for a moment as he tried to understand the situation. Wait, he keeps letting his eyes wander to Viola even though he’s really mad at me, Lucas noted mentally with a smirk. He’s one of the idiots who was chasing the princess quest! YES! This I can use! His eyes wandered to the ninja wannabe as he smiled from ear to ear. “It’s not my fault that these women are drawn to me. It’s not my fault that they fawn over my every action.” Lucas slowly stepped into the room, but not by more than a step. He wanted to make sure that he was ready to react the moment one of them made a move. “You act like I am to blame for the fact they love me and that you’re not even an afterthought. It’s the gods themselves you should be mad at, not me. You should curse your mother and father for birthing you with such an ugly face that no woman could ever love. You should curse your teachers for schooling you in reading and writing but not in etiquette and how to talk to a woman. There are a hundred people in your life you should blame before me. I am not at fault, nor are the women. How can you blame me for being loved, or them for loving me, when it is as natural as life itself? Just ask your dear friend”--Lucas gestured to Jake--“what price he had to pay for being so hideous that even his betrothed looked elsewhere. And he, at least, is more talented than you.”
“YOU . . . !!!” The man’s words choked off with his rage and seemed to stick in his throat.
“Thomas, I--” Viola called out briefly before grabbing both sides of her head. “I can’t stop myself, Thomas. I . . . I want to go to him. Please, let me free. I have to go to him! Go on with your life! It’ll be a good life. You’ll find someone else. There’s-- Ahh!” Viola shrieked as if she were being mentally assaulted, tightly clutching her hair in two tiny fists.
Ah . . . So, you’re really hamming up the mind-control angle, Lucas noted as Viola showed him why neither she nor Bonnie had been hurt. Clever, clever girl. Lucas was thrilled that her penchant for drama had managed to keep both of them safe.
“Ha! That’s right. Just free them and go on with your miserable, unloved existence. Suffer in solitude or find companionship with other lonely, simpering fools. You’ll never have a hope at romance. Real men will always steal the heart of every woman you pathetically pine after,” Lucas taunted, laughing as he did so. He wanted to make sure he was playing the ultimate cliché villain role perfectly.
“You are such a bastard!” Thomas shouted. “Don’t think you’re going to get away with this!”
“Damn, even I want to kill him now,” one of the two mages guarding Bonnie and Viola said through gritted teeth. “What kind of jackhole talks like that?”
“Who says jackhole?” the player next to him snickered.
“Well, you’ll get your chance to kill him since that's what I’ve brought you here to do! Everyone, murder this bastard and free the princess from his control!” Thomas ordered, raising a hand and leveling it right at Lucas.
“HA!” Lucas barked. “Do you really want to do that? To try and kill me? Is dying here really worth it, all so this ugly loser can have a shot at being some ungrateful princess’s white knight? Aren’t the lot of you ashamed to work for such a pathetic, manipulative ba
stard? Tell me, princess, tell me truly: Did you even know this man existed before he tried to rescue you?” Lucas asked, hoping that his signal would be clear for her to follow.
“I . . .” Viola looked up at him through two large eyes. “His actions have now proven him of good heart! He . . . I-I’m sorry,” she whimpered, lowering her head and pretending to cry into her hands.
Lucas was impressed with her acting, but he had seen it so much over the course of their fake villainy that he could tell exactly when she started performing. “That’s right. He was nothing before me, and after I’m finished with those who fight against me, he’ll still be nothing. This is your chance.” He extended one of his hands to the room as if offering them something. “If you’re here for righteousness, abandon it and hold your lives dear. If you’re here to save her, she is already lost. She is under my control, and if I die, she shall follow me into the grave as all my women are wont to do. Throw down your weapons and hold your lives dearly.” Lucas pointedly looked at one of the mages who was dressed in a red robe and seemed to have been hanging on his words. If you’re here for money, well, no one’s fortune surpasses my own. When the fight is over, when dawn rises and order is still intact, I promise to pay you exactly what you deserve.”
Both the archer and the mage in red looked tempted. Lucas could tell that he was doing a good job at convincing at least the mage, if not the archer too, to abandon the brat that had hired them and was bossing them around. They’re the greedy ones, Lucas realized. He wished dearly that he still had his necklace. It would have been an easy thing to mind control one of them given how long his speech had gone on--almost a full minute--and he was positive that he’d have been able to get the spell off without anyone realizing it.
I can’t believe that stupid, freaking noble’s brat blew up my necklace, Lucas grumbled to himself.
